The 20 Best New TV Shows of 2021

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – December 28, 2021

Above are the highest-scoring first-year TV series (including limited series) debuting in the United States between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021. Shows are ranked by Metascore (an average of grades from top professional critics on a 0-100 scale) prior to rounding based on scores as of December 24, 2021, and any programs with fewer than 7 reviews are excluded. One-off TV specials and made-for TV movies are ranked separately at the end of the gallery.

13 of 23 photo by Hulu

85 McCartney 3,2,1 (Hulu)

(#8) There was no shortage of treats for Beatles fans in 2021. Arriving in July, this six-episode, simply structured, black-and-white Hulu miniseries finds Paul McCartney and Rick Rubin in discussion at Rubin's studio. Rubin proves a skilled interviewer and McCartney a fascinating storyteller, and the latter's reflections on 50 years of his work with the Beatles, Wings, and as a solo artist would alone be worth the price of admission. But when Rubin occasionally pulls out the masters to well-known McCartney recordings and isolates individual tracks to discover how the songs were put together in the studio, the results are pure magic.

“Rubin and McCartney make every musical deep-dive on the piano or mixing desk session truly informative, sharing insights about minute details that breathe new life into songs sometimes taken for granted.” —Tara Bennett, Paste

Watch it on Hulu (6 episodes)

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